Moraea
Encyclopedia
Moraea is a genus
of plant
s in the family Iridaceae
. The genus name is a tribute to the English botanist Robert Moore
.
The technical botanical material in this entry is abstracted largely from “The Genera of Southern African Flowering Plants”
, but most of them are smaller than most irises and commonly they are more precise in shape and with a stiffer perianth and more definite markings. Some have strong, pleasant scents, while others have none to speak of. Plants of the genus now called Dietes
once were considered to be in the genus Moraea, but were separated on the grounds that they were rhizomatous
. In contrast, all Moraea species have corm
s.
Botanically, Moraea species are small to medium sized deciduous herbs. The rootstock is a globose corm covered with membranous or fibrous and reticulated tunics that may accumulate in multiple layers. The scape is subterranean or aerial, simple or branched, often bearing short leaf-like bracts at nodes. Leaves solitary or several, bifacial, flat to canaliculate or terete, with short equitant apex. Inflorescence a cymose corymb enclosed in large herbaceous spathes; floral bracts enclosed, membranous. Perianth Iris-like, radially symmetrical; tube absent except in one species; outer perianth-segments unguiculate, with limb spreading or reflexed; inner segments erect or spreading, entire, trifid, or reduced, or none. Stamens appressed to style column; filaments partly united, contiguous, rarely free; anthers linear, lying against style-branches. Ovary clavate to cylindrical; style usually short, 3-branched; branches, flattened, petaloid, each bearing forked crests; stigma a transverse lobe on abaxial surface at base of crests. Capsule globose to cylindrical, woody to soft-walled; seeds several to many, spherical to angled, or depressed and plate-like.
geophytes and accordingly they vary greatly in their ecology
, ranging from tiny plants just an inch or two high, to about four feet (120 cm), with a wide range of pollinators, including some long-tongued flies in families such as the Bombyliidae
and Tabanidae. Some conserve their nectar and pollen for such pollinators by protecting their flowers from ants; they exude a sticky gum that covers the stalks of their inflorescences. Botanical names such as Moraea bituminosa
and Moraea viscaria
refer to this characteristic. The five groups are Galaxia
, Hexaglottis, Homeria
, Barnardiella
and Gynandiris.
The corms of some species have been used as food, though they usually are small. Moraea fugax and Moraea edulis have been mentioned,the taste of the latter having been compared with that of chestnuts. However, some species are unpleasant and some actually poisonous.
Some Moraea species:
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of plant
Plant
Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...
s in the family Iridaceae
Iridaceae
The Iris family or Iridaceae is a family of perennial, herbaceous and bulbous plants included in the monocot order Asparagales, taking its name from the genus Iris. Almost worldwide in distribution and one of the most important families in horticulture, it includes more than 2000 species...
. The genus name is a tribute to the English botanist Robert Moore
Robert Moore
Robert Moore may refer to:*Robert Moore , Northern Ireland theologian and politician*Robert Moore , United States Congressman from Pennsylvania...
.
The technical botanical material in this entry is abstracted largely from “The Genera of Southern African Flowering Plants”
Description
Moraeas have iris-like flowers and were at first regarded as members of the genus IrisIris (plant)
Iris is a genus of 260-300species of flowering plants with showy flowers. It takes its name from the Greek word for a rainbow, referring to the wide variety of flower colors found among the many species...
, but most of them are smaller than most irises and commonly they are more precise in shape and with a stiffer perianth and more definite markings. Some have strong, pleasant scents, while others have none to speak of. Plants of the genus now called Dietes
Dietes
Dietes is a genus of rhizomatous plants of the family Iridaceae. Common names include Fortnight lily, African iris, Morea or Moraea iris, Japanese iris and Butterfly iris, each of which may be used differently in different regions for one or more of the four species within the genus.Most species...
once were considered to be in the genus Moraea, but were separated on the grounds that they were rhizomatous
Rhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...
. In contrast, all Moraea species have corm
Corm
A corm is a short, vertical, swollen underground plant stem that serves as a storage organ used by some plants to survive winter or other adverse conditions such as summer drought and heat ....
s.
Botanically, Moraea species are small to medium sized deciduous herbs. The rootstock is a globose corm covered with membranous or fibrous and reticulated tunics that may accumulate in multiple layers. The scape is subterranean or aerial, simple or branched, often bearing short leaf-like bracts at nodes. Leaves solitary or several, bifacial, flat to canaliculate or terete, with short equitant apex. Inflorescence a cymose corymb enclosed in large herbaceous spathes; floral bracts enclosed, membranous. Perianth Iris-like, radially symmetrical; tube absent except in one species; outer perianth-segments unguiculate, with limb spreading or reflexed; inner segments erect or spreading, entire, trifid, or reduced, or none. Stamens appressed to style column; filaments partly united, contiguous, rarely free; anthers linear, lying against style-branches. Ovary clavate to cylindrical; style usually short, 3-branched; branches, flattened, petaloid, each bearing forked crests; stigma a transverse lobe on abaxial surface at base of crests. Capsule globose to cylindrical, woody to soft-walled; seeds several to many, spherical to angled, or depressed and plate-like.
Diversity
There are about 200 known species of Moraea, divided into five groups, from various regions of sub-Saharan Africa. Most are endemic to Southern Africa, about 125 to the South-Western Cape in particular, with 2 species in Eurasia. They are typical fynbosFynbos
Fynbos is the natural shrubland or heathland vegetation occurring in a small belt of the Western Cape of South Africa, mainly in winter rainfall coastal and mountainous areas with a Mediterranean climate...
geophytes and accordingly they vary greatly in their ecology
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
, ranging from tiny plants just an inch or two high, to about four feet (120 cm), with a wide range of pollinators, including some long-tongued flies in families such as the Bombyliidae
Bombyliidae
Bombyliidae is a large family of flies with hundreds of genera, although their life cycles are not well known. Adults generally feed on nectar and pollen, thus are pollinators of flowers. They superficially resemble bees, thus are commonly called bee flies, and this may offer the adults some...
and Tabanidae. Some conserve their nectar and pollen for such pollinators by protecting their flowers from ants; they exude a sticky gum that covers the stalks of their inflorescences. Botanical names such as Moraea bituminosa
Moraea bituminosa
Moraea bituminosa is a species of the genus Moraea in family Iridaceae.It is a cormous geophyte 25 - 30 cm high with two leaves. The plant is sticky to the touch. Flowers are yellow with deep yellow nectar guides. The outer tepals are 22-32 mm long and inner tepals are 20 to 29 mm...
and Moraea viscaria
Moraea viscaria
Moraea viscaria is a species of the genus of Moraea in the Iridaceae that is named after the sticky secretion on the stem and branches....
refer to this characteristic. The five groups are Galaxia
Galaxia
Galaxia may refer to:*The superior form of Gaia , a planet in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series*Galaxia , a genus in the iris family*"Galaxia", a 1996 trance song by Ferry Corsten...
, Hexaglottis, Homeria
Homeria
Homeria, commonly known as Cape tulips, is a genus of the botanical family Iridaceae, which has 32 species of corm-bearing perennial herbs. In addition, these plants are used as ornamental plants...
, Barnardiella
Barnardiella
Barnardiella is a genus of moths belonging to the subfamily Tortricinae of the family Tortricidae....
and Gynandiris.
The corms of some species have been used as food, though they usually are small. Moraea fugax and Moraea edulis have been mentioned,the taste of the latter having been compared with that of chestnuts. However, some species are unpleasant and some actually poisonous.
Some Moraea species:
- Moraea albiflora G. J. Lewis, Goldblatt
- Moraea algoensis Goldblatt
- Moraea amissa Goldblatt
- Moraea angulata Goldblatt
- Moraea angusta Thunberg, Ker Gawler
- Moraea anomala J. G. Lewis
- Moraea aristataMoraea aristataMoraea aristata is a critically endangered species of plant in the genus Moraea, that is endemic to the city of Cape Town and is now restricted to the grounds of the Observatory in the Cape Town suburb of Observatory.Moraea aristata is a winter-flowering bulb that produces large and striking...
(D. Delaroche) Ascherson & Graebner - Moraea aspera Goldblatt
- Moraea autopunctata Goldblatt
- Moraea australis (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea autumnalis Goldblatt
- Moraea barkerae Goldblatt
- Moraea barnardiella Goldblatt
- Moraea barnardii L. Bolus
- Moraea bellendeniiMoraea bellendeniiMoraea bellendenii is a species of plant in genus Moraea that was named after John Bellenden, the English botanist.It is common in the Western Cape on sandy slopes and flats, this yellow flowered cormous geophyte is usually 50 - 100 cm high, multi-branched, with a solitary leaf...
(Sweet) Brown - Moraea bifida (L. Bolus) Goldblatt
- Moraea bipartita L. Bolus
- Moraea bituminosaMoraea bituminosaMoraea bituminosa is a species of the genus Moraea in family Iridaceae.It is a cormous geophyte 25 - 30 cm high with two leaves. The plant is sticky to the touch. Flowers are yellow with deep yellow nectar guides. The outer tepals are 22-32 mm long and inner tepals are 20 to 29 mm...
(L.f.) Ker Glawer - Moraea brachygne (Schlechter) Goldblatt
- Moraea britteniae (L. Bolus) Goldblatt
- Moraea bubalina Goldblatt
- Moraea bulbillifera (G. J. Lewis) Goldblatt
- Moraea cacea Barnard ex Goldblatt
- Moraea calcicola Goldblatt
- Moraea cantharophila Goldblatt & C.J. Manning
- Moraea cedarmontna (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea cedermonticola Goldblatt
- Moraea ciliata (L.f.) Ker Gawler
- Moraea citrina (G. J. Lewis) Goldblatt
- Moraea collinaMoraea collinaMoraea collina is a species of the genus Moraea in family Iridaceae.Formerly known as Homeria collina.It is a cormous geophyte 15–50 cm high with simple or branched stem and a single sheath shaped leaf. The plant is not sticky to the touch. Flowers are yellow with yellow nectar guides...
Thunberg - Moraea comptonii (L. Bolus) Goldblatt
- Moraea contorta Goldblatt
- Moraea cookii (L. Bolus) Goldblatt
- Moraea cooperi Baker
- Moraea crispa Thunberg
- Moraea debilis Goldblatt
- Moraea autumnalis Goldblatt
- Moraea deltoidea Goldblatt & C. J. Manning
- Moraea demissa Goldblatt
- Moraea elegans Jacquin
- Moraea elliotii Baker
- Moraea elsiae Goldblatt
- Moraea exiliflora Goldblatt
- Moraea falcifolia Klatt
- Moraea fenestrata (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea fergusoniae L. Bolus
- Moraea fistulosa (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea flaccida Sweet
- Moraea flaviscens (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea fragrans Goldblatt
- Moraea fistulosa (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea fugacissima (L.f.) Goldblatt
- Moraea fugax (D.Delaroche) Jacquin
- Moraea fuscomontana (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea galaxia (L.f.) Goldblatt & Manning
- Moraea gawleri Sprengel
- Moraea gigandra L.Bolus
- Moraea gracilenta Goldblatt
- Moraea hesperantha (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea graniticolaMoraea graniticolaMoraea graniticola is a species of plant in the Iridaceae family. It is endemic to Namibia. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry shrubland.-References:* Loots, S. 2004. . Downloaded on 22 August 2007....
Goldblatt - Moraea hexaglottisMoraea hexaglottisMoraea hexaglottis is a species of plant in the Iridaceae family. It is endemic to Namibia. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry shrubland.-References:* Craven, P. & Loots, S. 2004. . Downloaded on 22 August 2007....
Goldblatt - Moraea inconspicua Goldblatt
- Moraea lewisae (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea lilacina Goldblatt & J. C. Manning
- Moraea linderi Goldblatt
- Moraea longiaristata Goldblatt
- Moraea longifolia (Jacquin) Persoon
- Moraea longistyla (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea loubseri Goldblatt
- Moraea louisabolusiae Goldblatt
- Moraea lugubris (Salsbury) Goldblatt
- Moraea lurida Ler Gawler
- Moraea luteoalba (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea macgregorii Goldblatt
- Moraea macrocarpa Goldblatt
- Moraea macronyx G. J. Lewis
- Moraea marlothii (L Bolus) Goldblatt
- Moraea maximiliani (Schlechter) Goldblatt & J. C. Manning
- Moraea melanops Goldblatt & J. C. Manning
- Moraea miniata Andrews
- Moraea minima Goldblatt
- Moraea minor Ecklon
- Moraea monticola Goldblatt
- Moraea nana (L. Bolus) Goldblatt & J. C. Manning
- Moraea neglecta G. J. Lewis
- Moraea nibigena Goldblatt
- Moraea ochroleuca (Salsbury) Drapiez
- Moraea papilionacea (L.f.) Ker Gawler
- Moraea patens (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea pilifolia Goldblatt
- Moraea polyanthos L.f.
- Moraea polystacha (Thunberg) Ker Gawler
- Moraea pritzeliana Diels
- Moraea pseudospicata Goldblatt
- Moraea pyrophila Goldblatt
- Moraea radians (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea ramosissima (L.f.) Druce
- Moraea reflexa Goldblatt
- Moraea regalis Goldblatt & J. C. Manning
- Moraea riparia (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea serpentina Baker
- Moraea setifolia (L.f.) Druce
- Moraea spathula (L.f.) Klatt
- Moraea speciosa (L. Bolus) Goldblatt
- Moraea stagnalis (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea sisyrinchium (L.) Ker Gawler (Europe)
- Moraea thomasiae Goldblatt
- Moraea tricolor Andrews
- Moraea tricuspidata (L.f.) G. J. Lewis
- Moraea tripetala (L.f.) Ker Gawler
- Moraea tulbaghensis L. Bolus
- Moraea umbellata ThunbergFile:
- Moraea unguiculata Ker Gawler
- Moraea vallisavium Goldblatt
- Moraea vallisbelli (Goldblatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea variabilis (G. J. Lewis) Goldblatt
- Moraea vegeta (L.)
- Moraea verecunda Goldblatt
- Moraea versicolor (Salsbury ex Klatt) Goldblatt
- Moraea vespertina Goldblatt & C. J. Manning
- Moraea villosa
- Moraea viscariaMoraea viscariaMoraea viscaria is a species of the genus of Moraea in the Iridaceae that is named after the sticky secretion on the stem and branches....
(L.f.) Ker - Moraea virgita Jacquin
- Moraea worcesterensis Goldblatt